Impetus for the Chamber's support of desegregation

Wright continues to discuss the changing role of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce to local politics. In stressing the centrality of downtown business interests to the political positioning of the Chamber, Wright argues that the impetus to support desegregation in Charlotte was largely fueled by an awareness of the negative economic implications of continued segregation. His comments, in this regard, reveal intersections between race, economics, and politics.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with L. M. Wright Jr., April 1, 1974. Interview A-0333-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

WILLIAM MOYE:

Well, talking about the Chamber in the early sixties, there has been a
shift in their power or whatever and a shift in their interest, and has
the shopping center interests sort of‚Ä¶

L. M. WRIGHT, JR.:

The Chamber never overcame the dispersal of the central city. That would
be my basic analysis of it. The Chamber's strength came from
essentially the downtown businessmen and in the late fifties and early
sixties, they were invovled, as you may have read‚Ä¶well, if
you wanted a bond issue something you went down to the Chamber first and
convinced them and they went down to City Hall and convinced those guys.
There was a process of working backwards for awhile.

WILLIAM MOYE:

And Observer editorials kept saying, "The
Chamber is running the city‚Ä¶"

L. M. WRIGHT, JR.:

Yeah, sometimes complaining about it, because we had elected some other
folks down there to make a few decisions themselves. And on the race
issue, I think the Chamber took a leadership role, certainly in the
desegregation of the restaurants and theaters in '63 and
'64, that period. They were still deeply involved enough.
Although, that came at a time more under personal influence than any other thing. Ed Burnside, who was then with
what was Home Finance Company and which was one of the forerunners of
the American Commercial Credit Company, was heavily influenced by
Carlyle Marney, the minister over at Myers Park Baptist Church, and it
was simply a case of a very conscientious businessman being struck with
his moral duty and having it pointed out to him at an appropriate time
and feeling that that was the right thing to do. He led that Chamber
into that thing, and it worked. I guess that shortly after that, you
know, the logical extension of things like the desegregation of
accommodations and public schools is "o.k., but now
let's start worrying about equal employment." Well,
then you start hitting knots. You want them to stop passing resolutions
at lunch and go out and start doing something about it in their own
businesses. It gets stickier there. You are no longer talking about
public morality or the general good, you're talking about
specific‚Ä¶

WILLIAM MOYE:

That hits the pocketbook‚Ä¶

L. M. WRIGHT, JR.:

Yeah, and "what color is your secretary?" and that sort
of stuff. It's a different kind of problem. I suppose that
you could say that to a slight degree, the quality of the elected
officials improved. Certainly it's better now than it was
fifteen years ago. The County Commissioners fifteen years ago
essentially were still, you know, the farmers come to town worried about
the folks who lived out in the piney woods of north Mecklenburg County.
Good folks, but you know, never knew what a city was. That kind of
thing. Enough of the population of Charlotte has changed, too.